Talking Holland: Sinterklaas

[THOMASSU63]

In Sweden we celebrate the St. Lucia every 13th of december. From an Italian saint of Syracuse. She wears a crown of candles on her head and is dressed all in white. She is followed by a lot of other white clad followers all carrying a candle. The girls have tinsel in their hair and the boys are wearing pointy hats. They all sing christmas songs. We all eat a lot of saffron buns and gingerbread on this day too.

[HalfBlindGamer]

@THOMASSU63 Oh cool, never knew that, thanks! Always fun to learn of other traditions as well and I know very little when it comes to Sweden I must admit.

[AtsumaKarin]

That's certainly a very interesting Christmas tradition. :)

I can't say I know a lot about the Netherlands. I went there once years ago with my family, stayed in Eindhoven, really liked it. :D

When we went to Amsterdam, though, we had the worst storm I'd ever encountered so that kinda ruined it.

I wanna hear you sing!!! ;)

I wouldn't mind seeing future instalments of this series, albeit I'm a year and a half too late to this video. :P

[HalfBlindGamer]

@AtsumaKarin Thanks man, yeah this was a fun video to work on and I did have some ideas for more. Actually wanted to make them 'on location'. But couldn't sync up with my cameraman, so the next installment stayed in limbo :( Hope I can pick it up sometime. Will need to walk a lot further now that I moved though lol.

Just like England, it tends to get wet here... although big storms are not that common. It will rain a lot! And if water is not falling down, it's making it's way from below haha.

[HalfBlindGamer]

@AtsumaKarin Oh and, I'm glad no one else asked me to sing lol.

[reviewmaster007]

the translation you made up is the best translation where i can come up with =\

[GeriatricFan1963]

Hey Seb! It looks like it's that time of year again... Should we be worried that there's no X-mas video in the making that you've mentioned yet?

[HalfBlindGamer]

@GeriatricFan1963 Very worried :(

[theBBQStudios]

He's here in the netherlands back! :D

[SirGoldfish092]

@TheLoesie Oh yeah totally forgot tha my family used to do that too

[MrXarnus]

Black Piet klinkt wel zeer raar...

[lazz6]

zwarte piet (black piet) isn't black because he is a slave but because of the soot of the chimney he climbs on.

(sory for my english)

[HalfBlindGamer]

@lazz6 No one really knows why he was made black, the chimney theory is one way to look at it, but since he got invented well before he was climbing through them, it seems doubtful. But, it doesn't really matter. It's a fun tradition and that's what it's all about, the why's are just redundant details ;)

Your English is just fine by the way, thanks for the comment :)

[lazz6]

@HalfBlindGamer  that's true XD

[SirGoldfish092]

sinterklaas is more for the young in holland but its fun :)

[sungam3210]

Hey HBG thx for telling about Sinterklaas i learned a lot in denmark he is called Julemanden "The Christmas Man" xD and we celebrate christmas with the "normal" santa claus celebratesen

[HalfBlindGamer]

Cool, always fun to read about other traditions across the world! Thanks!

I'm glad you enjoyed the video. We also have the normal Santa, or well I guess he has just left again heh.

[Sarato]

I've always wanting to visit Holland and you've got some really nice christmas traditions. In Sweden, we celebrate christmas with the "normal" santa claus (which we call Jultomten) and his colors on the suit was gray until we got americanized and painted him red.

This video made me really cheerful and I hope you enjoy christmas as much as I do. =)

[HalfBlindGamer]

Thanks a lot man, and yes, I enjoy the december month a lot! Jultomten is a pretty cool name!

Sinterklaas and Chrismas are both seperate traditions here though, they have no connection, well only that Santa kind of got his origin from the other guy, but they are two different feast all together really.

[QD53]

Great video

[HalfBlindGamer]

Thanks!

[Ruudos]

Nice vid, but the "pepernoot" and "kruidnoot" are two different kinds of candy. In your vid you're showing the "kruidnoot". "Pepernoten" are bigger and taste different.

[HalfBlindGamer]

Yes, you're totally right, messed up a bit there. It's kind of annoying to keep them apart with most big brands selling everything as pepernoot, regardless which ones they are actually selling. But you're right indeed, there is a big different, especially in taste. They are both made with speculaas spices though ;)

[AisuMT]

You should make more videos on Holland's Culture!

[HalfBlindGamer]

Thanks! I'm glad people liked it enough to want more haha. I've got an idea for another one.

[blackflagnc]

Awesome vid! Seb, you're better than the Travel Channel!

[HalfBlindGamer]

HAHA, thanks!

[lukemorse1]

LMAO, that was funny as hell and so well put together to make it interesting and educational. Seb, you really are the man!

[HalfBlindGamer]

Thanks man! Glad to hear you liked it!

[smartlamppost]

Thanksgiving? Oh yeah! I kinda forgot about Thanksgiving, what with christmas coming up. Poor thanksgiving. Doesn't anyone care about the day we americans killed off all the indians? Whatever, cool vid! I didn't know anything about santa

[Logdotzip]

Excellent video, please make more, I feel ENLIGHTENED

[HalfBlindGamer]

Thanks man! I've got a pretty fun idea for another one, so I might do that soon :)

[laatmaarzien]

We Dutch celebrate a lot!

It's funny the kids here get everything twice :-).

Halloween (candy), Sint Maarten (candy again).

Sinterklaas (gifts), X-mas (gifts again) + 2nd X-mas day!

[AxiomofDiscord]

I am a Discordian who celebrates the Neo Pagan and Discordian Holidays along with secular U.S. Holidays for the greater part of my family...

= I should never be sober lol ( sadly out here we are only allowed 8 holidays per year lol )

Aberran

[chaosbringer666]

if yoy sya black pete is racist you gotta remember

hes black because he comes trhough the chimney

[Dennoman2007]

Belgium as well! :p

[HalfBlindGamer]

Yeah, I said Belgium too right? Although those still have one Pete and the horse is called 'Bad weather today' over there :D

[Dennoman2007]

Yeah well, those are pop culture references introduced by the "Dag Sinterklaas" TV show, but other than that we don't really pay it any mind.

[Aiolome]

Nice megaman / capcom reference there :D

Nog een vrolijke sinterklaas toegewenst vanuit Friesland!

[HalfBlindGamer]

Couldn't resist ;)

Hetzelfde, maar dan vanuit Rotterdam!

[GeriatricFan1963]

At my scout troop here in England, we make shoes (From cardboard) to celebrate Sinterklaas's X-mas. Sounds much better than our father christmas over here, seeing as people have ditched him in favour of his Americian counterpart, because his name is easier to remember and he has more money; therefore can give more "pressies" to the greedy people.

[HalfBlindGamer]

Haha, yeah, just good spirit alone doesn't give you a new Nintendo ;) It is kind of a shame though, older tales and traditions just get forgotten that way.

[OGRMaster]

I went to NORDWIJK few years ago. Very nice place.

[HalfBlindGamer]

Never been there myself actually. You went camping there?

[OGRMaster]

Sort of. very nice coast line. And your buses are wierd though, with these stripe cards :D

[HalfBlindGamer]

Hah, yeah those can be strange I guess if you're not used to them haha. They are soon a thing of the past though, here in Rotterdam you can't use them that much anymore, only in the busses really, other public transport won't accept them anymore.

[markvergeer]

In kindergarten I recognized the neighbor of our headmaster in the visiting Sinterklaas and when I was called forward to sit on his knee and have a little talk like all the other kids present I stated the obvious 'Sinterklaas is Mr Faai'. Then everything is fuzzy / hazy. I think I was rushed of the scene in a hurry :P

Sinterklaas's cover was blown due to my observatory skills already present at a young age :P

[HalfBlindGamer]

Haha, so are multiple personality disorders your specialty?

[markvergeer]

Hahahaha! Geweldig Sinterklaas. Coca Cola rehashed Sinterklaas into Santa Claus! :P

[maricopaapt14]

Thank you for the History lesson. I am not sure if "black pete" is acceptable here. They might have to change his name to Minority Peter, or some other name.  Great vid.

[HalfBlindGamer]

Yeah, I know what you mean. In fact, it's kind of been a pretty sensitive subject for a while here too. Occasionally it gets a lot of flak and some people want it changed. I guess you can argue that it's not really correct, but why bother, why stand in the way of something that's just about having fun. People are making things way to complicated sometimes!

[willem01]

Aah Sinterklaas, how i remember i wanted a Game Boy Advance from him... I NEVER GOT IT... maybe i should blame my parents...

[HalfBlindGamer]

Shouldn't have stolen from the cookie jar ;)

[willem01]

But i never stole from it ;(... well anyways, in the spirit of Sinterklaas, i'm getting a Skullcandy headphone :D

[TanukiKGA]

Der Sinterklaas! The name is just so much more awesome than in other languages! Its actually really nice to see you still have Black Pete as well! Still not as bad ass as Knecht Ruprecht though ;)

[HalfBlindGamer]

It's amazing how many variations there are, everyone mixed everything together and just went with what they liked best hah.

I hear that Black Pete is also coming more and more into play in Germany, mostly to please the Dutch imigrants there. We can be such asses when leaving our country. We don't want to live here, yet we want to remain Dutch, kind of crazy how many times we complain about intergration, we're not that good at it ourselves hah.

[TanukiKGA]

Well, you DID bring him to America, and I think thats how we actually ended up with Santa Claus, the jolly bigboned guy in red eventually. So I say its a good thing ;)

[STEFANROCKER23]

Yeah Sinterklaas is awesome! Everyone's favorite holiday in Holland!

[HalfBlindGamer]

Haha you tell 'm!